Ah Gabriel Garcia Marquez ... how I love you so! Saying that, haven't yet got around to Love in the time of Cholera I do have his Collected short stories though and the novella Chronicle of a Life Foretold which I may have time to read... Oh and Memories of my Melancholy Whores.

I had an ambitious summer reading list but I have no time for pleasure reading as writing my Masters dissertation. Although that does give me pleasure but in a non-relaxing sense, I am studying Angela Carter and the Irish playwright Marina Carr and I recommend all of their work!

themasochistmuse

Jul 13 2006, 04:58 PM

I finished reading "Devil in the Details" by Jennifer Traig about a month ago and it was so good, I'm thinking of re-reading it, haha.It's about a girl growing up with OCD and she is quite comedic about the whole thing which makes it more interesting and funny rather than depressing.

I also just finished reading "Outsiders" (no, not the one they made a movie out of a long time ago) which is a book compiled of short stories from multiple authors such as Neil Gaiman, Melanie Tem, Poppy Z. Brite, etc... some are good- while some are so outlandish I feel I wasted several minutes of my life reading those particular short stories, haha... it's still a nice book though.

Now, I've recently been reading another book of compiled authors who are dedicating their work to HP Lovecraft's Cthulu mythos... all of them so far I've enjoyed a lot, but after this book- I definately think I'm going to re-read Devil in the Details.

Buster_Love

Jul 13 2006, 10:53 PM

I read "On the Beach" by Nevil Shute, and it is incredible. It's about the Apocalypse caused by nuclear fallout, and it illustrates people's reactions to it in terms of their philosophies, emotions, and actions. The characters act as though they have nothing left to lose, because in a way, they don't. For example, they have amature car races in which they drive INSANELY because they'll all die soon anyway. The emotion this book invokes in the reader (at least in me) is too profound to describe in a paragraph or two; "On the Beach" is a must-read.

Girlbomb, is your book available in stores, or just on the internet? I read a summary of it, and it looks like you led a hell of a childhood. I had a rough childhood with an abusive parent, too, but it was nothing like what you endured. I'm interested in it, but I hate giving out my credit card number online. (I know reputable sites like Amazon are safe, but it's still a fear of mine, rational or otherwise.)

punkerplus

Jul 14 2006, 02:40 AM

Memories of my Melancholy Whores was the first Gabriel Garcia Marquez book I read and I think its wonderful. He has such a beautiful way of writing.

sixelacat

Jul 14 2006, 02:59 AM

I have been so lazy about pleasure reading this summer, just re-reading "easy" fiction I already have, nothing new. As soon as I finish this last summer course, I have a list of new fiction I want to get, including The Abortionist's Daughter and Girlbomb! (of course).

Has anyone read Lawrence Block's "Tanner" series? That's mostly what I've been reading, the character just cracks me up! Written mostly in the late 60's and 70's, Tanner never sleeps and likes to join "hopeless" political causes like the Serbian Brotherhood and the Flat Earth Society. It's interesting to read what were considered hopeless causes then that have actually come to pass (like the break-up of Yugoslavia). And I can't help but be amused when he refers to Queen Elizabeth as "Betty Saxe-Coburg the Pretender"!

And Voodoo Princess, I went to start downloading books as soon as you posted that in the Community Forum, but there are so many to choose from I decided I'd need to get a list together, which I haven't done yet! I did download an interesting collection of old French short stories, but that's as far as I got before "kid in a candy store" syndrome kicked in and I couldn't make up my mind because I wanted everything!

bunnyb

Jul 14 2006, 05:35 AM

voodooprincess, whilst the lounge was down I was going crazy cos I couldn't remember the address you posted! So checking it out and getting list together.

punkerplus, I must get around to reading MomMW, I love his style.

vesicapisces

Jul 14 2006, 06:51 AM

I love On the Beach - it was also made into a really awesome movie with Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, and Ava Gardner. Nevil Shute wrote (writes?) a lot of good stuff - f'r'instance, A Town Called Alice.

raisingirl

Jul 16 2006, 06:59 AM

I just want to say that before the Lounge went down for renovations, I went through the archives and took notes on the books that all of you have mentioned that were of interest to me. I have such a long list of books to read now -- as if it wasn't long enough before! ::boobie-squishin' book love::

(I'll report back when I've actually made progress on the list; in the meantime, I love to read about what everyone else is reading.)

sillygrrl13

Jul 16 2006, 09:17 PM

Has anyone read "Water For Elephants," by Sara Gruen? I'm going to a reading she's doing here this week.

mirabella

Jul 17 2006, 12:39 PM

Has anyone heard of Library Thing. I think it's www.librarything.com. You can actually make a list of all of the books that you have and rate them. Then you can share your list. It's a really good way to get recommendations for new books to read. A friend of mine just told me about it. I swear I don't work for them or anything!

I love Library Thing! Unfortunately, their site is down right now. (They've gotten a lot of press in the past few weeks, so it's been down quite a bit--new servers and such to deal with the deluge of users.)

My catalog.(I'm linking rather than writing it out because my username over there is part of my real name.)

catsoup

Jul 17 2006, 07:06 PM

I've got a road trip coming up and am looking for some good ideas for books on cd. While driving, I like mysteries or thrillers, things to keep me thinking but not too literary or deep. But I'm open to anything. My boyfriend will be along as well. I was hoping for something like The Davinci Code - interesting and easy, know what I mean?

doxy

Jul 18 2006, 12:34 AM

Check to see if Devil in the White City, The Historian, Blindness are on cd. Angels and Deamons is better on cd. I have both, Angels and Deamons and DaVinci Code.

In the dead center of Prince of Tides and I love it!

maryjo

Jul 18 2006, 09:21 AM

Nooo, come back LibraryThing!

I am packing my books into boxes to ship across the Atlantic, and I wanted to use my LT catalogue to mark which book is in which box...

(I think I should get a special geek prize for that, yes I do)

curioushair

Jul 18 2006, 10:16 AM

Don't worry. It's back up now. Maryjo, I just put Stone Butch Blues on my library want list. Two people ahead of me though. I may just buy it this weekend.

cellijenni

Jul 18 2006, 10:28 AM

Sorry, punkerplus...i was out of town for a while.

No, I haven't read One Hundred Years of Solitutue. Should I add it to my list??

punkerplus

Jul 18 2006, 10:52 AM

If you are a fan of GGM then definitely. It was the second book of his I'd read, and I enjoyed it, although I found it a little tedious in the middle. This was only for a vouple of chapters though.

I just recommend you keep a family tree besides you while reading it!

I am enjoying the abortionists daughter at the moment, even if some of the statements/attitudes make me cringe slightly. That said I'm only a few chapters in.

And I found two books today! "A short history of tractors in Ukranian" and "Eats, shoots and leaves". Has anyone read these?

sesame

Jul 18 2006, 01:08 PM

Oh Criminy. I love you all for the Library Thing heads-up, but SERIOUSLY. My to-do list for this week is so long, and now little to none of it will get done. Sigh. Off I go to create my catalog...

dusty

Jul 18 2006, 01:22 PM

I loved Eats, Shoots and Leaves. I'm hoping the etiquette one will be as funny because its one of the books I'm bring on vacation.

I like Nevil Shute very much too, but its been a dog's age since I read any.

mornington

Jul 18 2006, 01:25 PM

I loved A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian. It's well-written, and perceptive. I liked it because it struck a chord with me. The characters are good too.

I've fallen in love with Library Thing.

chibi

Jul 18 2006, 01:28 PM

Hi there, I am new, and I would like to recommend a few books that I have read recently that I think are good.

The Historian - tremendous pageturner, if you liked the Da vinci code, you would like this (though it is not a conspiracy type book)

Everyman - (this is Phillip Roth) Actually, I would recommend his last 4 books or so, they are are all great. This one is a very moving book about an average life, mortality, a life's worth (this sounds a bit depressing but I swear it's not)

I am currently reading Life - A User's Manual by Georges Perec. It is genius so far. Basically, if you could peel off the fromt wall of an average apartment block in Paris and see all the life within and how the inhabitants interact, this is the book.

Also, I am going back home to Canada to visit the family, can anyone recommend some engrossing yet fairly undemanding stuff for the plane ride? Cheers!

maryjo

Jul 18 2006, 03:06 PM

I have to figure a few things out with the box-packing, but I have begun my box-tagging. I was pleased to see there are about 30 other users on LT making use of the tag 'box 1'.

Curious, Stone Butch Blues is really amazing. Leslie Feinberg has a new book out, Drag King Dreams. The title looks a little unimaginative when placed next to the earlier one, but I'm looking forward to reading it.

cellijenni

Jul 19 2006, 11:42 AM

The Library Thing seems so interesting and fun...what's one more online addiction, right? But, the thought of going through my own library and inputting everything is seriously daunting!!

I just started "the god of small things". So far its beautiful, and is living up to all of the praise I have heard thus far.

punkerplus

Jul 19 2006, 12:00 PM

Oooh I'll look forward to reading them both then. I had heard good things about "Eats..." but hadn't heard anything about "A short history of tractors...". Also I want to add "The Island" by Victoria Hislop to my list because I've heard good things.

Ok ok, I admit it. I watched richard and judy today and they gave a really good review. Sigh.

lucizoe

Jul 19 2006, 01:37 PM

The Kite Runner - my college gave it to everyone as a "shared intellectual experience" book for the summer. My last experience with similar program was really really dull, so I was trepidatious, but oh, sheesh, was it great. It's haunting me, seriously. Made me cry like a baby AND want to kill people.

I saw a book at the strand the other day that looked fantastic - a nonfiction about a "notorious" abortion provider who built a tidy little empire for herself off her so-called ill-gotten gains. While the book was clearly written by an anti-choicer, I'm still thinking of going back to buy it. It looked interesting, but I can't for the life of me remember her name or the title.

All of these recommendations are so cool. And voodoo, I checked out your link when you posted it in the community forum. As soon as I get my acrobat reader working again, I'm at least snagging Alice in Wonderland. The Tenniel illustrations!!! Oh goodness!!

mornington

Jul 19 2006, 02:54 PM

chibi, I keep seeing Life - A User's Manual and wondering about it; it's good to see recommendations.

I saw The Island today, but didn't pick it up. I've always found the Richard&Judy-recommended books to be good; I rarely watch it (not having a tv right now does that) but I usually pick up a book if I see the "richard&judy book club" sticker on it.

I've just bought Norah Vincent's Self-Made Man: My Year Disguised As A Man. It looks very interesting, and I remember seeing her on tv and thinking it would be a good read.

snafooey

Jul 19 2006, 03:19 PM

Re: Self-Made Man - don't waste your time. Aside from the fact that I only learned after reading half of it that she has a reputation for notoriously anti-trans, she basically seems to think that she personally came up with the concept that the patriarchy also hurts men. Oh, and apparently most feminists wouldn't agree with that point b/c men are oppressors and oppressors only. The advance praise blurbs on the bck from the chick who wrote Who Stole Feminism? and Camille Paglia should have tipped me off.

I don't necessarily disagree with much of what she is saying (the patriarchy hurts everyone; men have it bad too) just the anti-feminist baggage and lack of serious scholarship she brings to the table. Also, as investigative reporting, it's extremely sloppy - she "infiltrates" extreme examples (the absolute sleaziest strip clubs she can find, where "real men" hang out; a monastery; a Glengarry Glenross type of selling scenario (b/c there's no way she's infiltrating Wall Street with her resume); a Robert Bly-type men's group) of American masculinity in progress and for every encounter, there are pages and pages of her own half-baked extrapolation/analysis. She also acknowledges that part of the stress she felt as a man could have been b/c, well, it's hard to impersonate the opposite sex for 18 months and it's bound to fuck with your head, but then she backtracks and says that really, it was mostly just that it's hard to be a man. B/c, you know, a man trying to make it as a woman for 18 months would have had a much easier time than she did. Whatever.

I ordered Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues last week, but I haven't received it yet. (The store from which I ordered it may be under water, and without power as I type this.) I did find Transgender Warriors in the library yesterday and starting reading it this morning. Wow. Pretty powerful stuff.

kittenb

Jul 23 2006, 10:51 AM

Oh doxy. I loved Prince of Tides. Someone else mentioned The Historian. I though it was much better than The DaVinci Code. And if you are looking for a dense long read, you could do a lot worse.

Right now I am reading Eragon. I really don't see what the fuss it about. It reads like Lord of the Rings fanfiction.

curioushair

Jul 25 2006, 03:44 PM

Borders just called to tell me my copy of Stone Butch Blues is in! I'm loving Transgender Warriors right now. A lot of history. A lot of history they don't tell you about in schools. The chapter on the Catholic Church just reinforces why I left in the first place. (Not that I was ever a big church goer anyway.)

mouse

Jul 25 2006, 04:18 PM

I don't know if any of you are familiar with lynda barry--she does these sweet/sad/bitter/funny comics that are syndicated in a lot of free papers, often featuring marlys, maybonne and beat poodle fred milton, i'd link to a site about her but i can't choose which, just google if you're unfamiliar--but i didn't know that she wrote fiction as well as comics until i found her book "cruddy" in my local bookstore.

WOW.

an incredible, brilliant, severely disturbing story with incredible, complex, characters and.....i just don't even know how to describe it. definitely not for the faint-hearted, but despite all the violence it reads like the sweetest, saddest....i don't even know. and the most amazing people that she comes up with!! i kept thinking "oh man, i wish they would make this into a movie, it would be so great" until i would realize that if it were a movie, it would probably be banned in several states.

i'm curious if anyone else has read this; woudl love your opinions.

curioushair

Jul 25 2006, 06:37 PM

I LOVE Lynda Barry. I know Cruddy is a big favorite, but I prefer the comics. It works. She lost something with the novel.

mouse

Jul 25 2006, 06:41 PM

i've loved her comics for a long time; i only just found out about the book. i think that the two are so different it's kind of impossible to compare them.

sixelacat

Jul 25 2006, 07:10 PM

I love Lynda Barry! I didn't know she'd written a book. I'll have to add it to my list....*unrolls mile-long scroll*....jeeze, there's gotta be room on here somewhere.....

punkerplus

Jul 26 2006, 04:55 AM

Well, I just finished the Abortionists Daughter and while I had gotton into the story by the end, it wasn't as good as I'd have hoped. Has any one else read this?

I guess I felt the sub-plot overshadowed the main plot and it was incredibly predictable.

Anyway, it was an easy read to rest my brain I don't know if anyone else ever needs to do that, but I find I read a lot of dense texts in one go and then need something simple I can skip through.

So what to read next... When you have such a long list its hard to choose!

Although I am interested in Transgender Warriors now.

bunnyb

Jul 26 2006, 06:25 AM

I really shouldn't be reading anything non-uni related but I'm being bad and picking up Nicole Krauss' The History of Love before I fall asleep at night. Not very far in but enjoying it thus far; v similar style to her hubby Jonathan Safran Foer and I loved Everything is Illuminated.

eta: random Q with purpose: does anyone remember who posted in here or somewhere else in media whores several months ago about writing a play about mothers and daughters?

brett

Jul 28 2006, 02:24 PM

I know I'm about a year behind, but I just finished "I Am Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe and absolutely loved it.

I'm currently working on "Until I Find You" by John Irving, but I'm only about 3 chapters into it and can't really form an opinion on it as yet.

Next up:The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark HaddonThe Prize-Winner of Defiance, Ohio by Terry Ryan

surly

Jul 29 2006, 10:02 AM

just read prep by curtis sittenfield based on suggestions in here and MAN it was good. she really gets that teenage neuroses perfectly. or maybe just my teenage neuroses, that worry about everything about being weird about saying things that you don't mean to and saying what you do. really really liked it

bunnyb

Jul 29 2006, 10:11 AM

Alan Warner's Sopranos really captures the neuroses of teenage girls. He's a Scottish writer (wrote Morven Callar) and the novel is about a school choir, not to be confused with HBO programme! I haven't read Prep yet so can't compare, desperate to based on recommendations!

crazyoldcatlady

Jul 29 2006, 11:24 AM

surly, i read finished prep about a week ago, and now i'm in a lull waiting for my amazon books to come in... that was a great, great read. despite the fact that (i feel) there was no discernable plot, the writing was engaging and dead on.

waiting on:

but enough about me... by jancee dunn

the tipping point by (can't remember )

and....guilty pleasure...

visists from the afterlife by sylvia browne. i love her books, despite the fact that she doesn't directly write them... and even if it is psychic bunk, i think she still has some spiritually valid points. (this coming from a very not spiritual/religious person)

mornington

Jul 29 2006, 12:58 PM

I just finished The Abortionist's Daughter. I did enjoy it, but like you said, punker, it was predictable. I kind-of hoped for something a little heavier, but I did get into it really quickly.

Before that I read Salaam Brick Lane - a memoir about a man who spends a year living on Brick Lane (the "immigrant" part of london - it's currently very Bangladeshi, although there are more and more Somalis and Eastern Europeans). It's honest, but funny and the author was by the end of the book obviously fond of the area and his neighbours. Every chapter is like a separate little story, but they're all interwoven. It touches briefly on the issues with immigration, and race, but more in the context of story than as an argument for or against.

ginger_kitty

Jul 29 2006, 01:14 PM

I am so excited, I finally bought the Good Body, today. I can't wait to read it!!

bunnyb

Jul 29 2006, 02:09 PM

Mornington, have you read Monica Ali's Brick Lane? I haven't and I'm curious what anyone who has (and a Londoner) thinks about the furore over the filming of the movie adaptation on Brick Lane? People are comparing it to the fatwa (sp?) on Salman Rushdie!

altargrrrl

Jul 29 2006, 05:08 PM

i read monica ali's *brick lane* just this past semester for a class i was t.a.-ing on gender, class, and geopolitical issues. i liked it quite a bit. i'm neither english nor bangladeshi, though. what's everyone in tizzy about?

i'm currently reading ariel gore's *the traveling death and resurrection show*. it's really great so far. i wish it was longer.

mornington

Jul 30 2006, 05:09 AM

I read Brick Lane, but a good few years ago, before I properly moved to London & went to Brick Lane. I liked it, but I don't think I'm really able to comment properly on the issues as it was so long ago. It seems to me though that everyone objects to it, but for different reasons. Who's making the furore? Fatwa's are a peculiar thing - but I don't think anyone's actually declared Fatwa on Monica Ali (they did on Rushdie). I imagine it would be because of her negative depiction of "traditional" muslim/bangladeshi marriage. I'll have to read it again.

I just read The Almond in one sitting. Excellent stuff.

bunnyb

Jul 30 2006, 05:23 AM

No there hasn't been a fatwa declared on Ali which is why the comparison to Rushdie is very scary! From what I've read (Guardian online) the residents of Brick Lane were protesting against the book being filmed there, so vehemently that filming has ceased. I understand from the article that Brck Lane residents do feel their comminuty was portrayed in a negative light and that Ali was telling lies about them (main protester's words).

Really want to read The Almond. Sniff.

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